Im trying to diagnose why my childhood n64 is displaying only a green screen. I had it displayed on my shelf for a while and decided to bring it out. When turning it on i was greeted with it only displaying a green screen and no sound other than a pop through the speakers when initially turned on.
From what i can tell links arent allowed on this forum but i do have a video showing the console and the issue thats happening if that helps.
Things I’ve done to try and fix the issue:
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Took apart the console and cleaned it up, checked the cartridge port as well.
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Tried 3 different power supplies (2 borrowed from friends with confirmed working systems, ome third party from online)
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Cleaned games and cartridge slots thoroughly
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Tried using the coax adapter and rca cables With both tube and flatscreen tvs.
I have noticed since making the video I mentioned that wiggling the expansion pack while the console is on does make the screen do some things. Im still unsure what the main issue could be and havent been able to find like a list of common problems for these consoles.
Hopefully this is something that can be fixed, im unsure where to start though.
Let me know what you guys think!
And if you made it this far, thank you for taking a moment to read this!
Hi there,
I’m probably not going be of much help as I haven’t opened an N64 since I was a kid. Given that it did originally work and given how old the system is, my best guess would be, expansion pin issues or cartridge pin issues or possibly failed caps and maybe possibly dry joint/s.elsewhere
Id take it apart completely and check the contacts for the cartridge and expansion pack, check the joints and ensure none are cold, cracked or damaged in any way, might even want to go over them with your iron in either case. Then check there is enough preload on the contacts themselves. Clean again following this and after hit them with contact cleaner, do the same with the cartridge and expansion pack, spray contact cleaner in them and with the console off, insert and remove multiple times…
If you’ve ruled out the above then you could check you have a continuous path, root on the board to the AV out on the back of the console (there is schematics floating around for the N64, some low res and some more detailed but possibly not relevent, either way you should be able to do this without them working your way back from the AV out)
if you’ve ruled out the above then I’d check for any caps which are on the same lines going to the AV out and replace, though given the age of the system an entire recap of any electrolytics would be reccommended.
Thanks for the reply. Ill go through and give the console another look over checking what you mentioned.